guardian.co.uk, Martin Chulov in Tripoli, Monday
29 August 2011
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| Gaddafi's wife, Safia, who has arrived in Algeria with his sons Mohammed and Hannibal and daughter Aisha. Photograph: Khaled El-Fiqi/EPA |
Efforts by
Libya's new rulers to bring the Gaddafi clan to justice have received a blow
this evening after it emerged that several family members had managed to flee
the country for neighbouring Algeria.
The
Algerian foreign ministry said Gaddafi's wife Safia, daughter Aisha and sons
Hannibal and Mohammed and their children had entered Algeria at 8.45am on
Monday, according to the state-run APS news agency.
Their fate
remains unclear. Rebels have said that if any Gaddafi relatives escape to
Algeria they will seek their extradition, but the outcome of such a move would
be uncertain.
Algeria has
refused to recognise the authority of Libya's new governing authority and has
watched with alarm as autocratic regimes have fallen across the region over the
past six months. Algerian authorities earlier in the year crushed an attempt to
mimic a Tunisian style uprising in Algiers.
Libya's new
governing authority says it has no credible information about Gaddafi's
whereabouts. Several of his sons are thought to still be in Tripoli. There were
reports on Monday night that another of his sons, Khamis, had been killed in an
air strike south of Tripoli, but these could not be immediately confirmed.
Earlier the
National Transitional Council justice minister, Mohammed al-Alagi, said the new
leadership in Tripoli wanted to try Gaddafi in Libya if and when he is caught,
rather than hand him over to the International Criminal Court. Alagi said the
demands of national justice took precedence over the indictment issued at the
end of June by the Hague-based court, seeking the arrest of Gaddafi for crimes
against humanity.
The court
also issued warrants for two of Gaddafi's top aides – his son and heir apparent
Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah al-Sanussi. The warrant
refers to the early weeks of the conflict in February. "We consider that
the national court and justice system has priority over international
justice," the minister said.
Asked if he
knew where Gaddafi might be hiding, he replied: "We don't comment on
security issues, or where he might be."
The
whereabouts of Gaddafi's other sons, Saif al-Islam, Mutassim and Saadi remain
unknown, along with his second daughter Hannah, who was thought to have been
killed in a US air strike in 1986, but was last week found to be working in a
Tripoli hospital.
The
director of the Sharwa Zarwa hospital in the centre of the capital has told the
Guardian that Hannah Gaddafi had ordered staff not to treat wounded rebels
during the past six months. "She also stayed here sometimes during the
night," said Dr Ghassem Barouni.
Gaddafi's
other son, Saif al-Arab, is thought to have been killed by a Nato strike in
April. However, the reappearance of his second daughter after 25 years has left
some members of the NTC sceptical of the claim.
 |
Wife of
Gaddafi, Safia, daughter Aisha, and sons Mohammed and
Hannibal have arrived in Algeria |
 |
Shwygar
Mullah, a nanny for Hannibal and Aline Gadhafi,
says Aline burned her with boiling water |
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